Benghazi-Gate Enters New Phase: The Cover Up of the Cover Up

It now looks as though the White House’s excuse for the pre-election Libya cover-up is itself a cover up. Last week, we were told by the Administration (and the compliant media) that during her now-infamous round robin of five Sunday news shows, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice was only telling us what she was told by the intelligence community. We were also told that references to al-Qaeda were edited out of the talking points in order to avoid tipping off the attackers that we were on to them. According to a number of CBS News’ sources, this simply isn’t true.

As recently as yesterday, though, Rice doubled down on this defense: “I relied soley and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community. I made clear that the information was preliminary and that our investigations would give us the definitive answers.”

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At first glance, Rice’s comments might not appear to move the ball, but they do tell us that the Administration has found its defense and intends to stick to it — that defense being that Rice was only parroting the false information she was given. But now, thanks to some good reporting from CBS News, we know things weren’t that simple.

Last week, former CIA Chief Davis Petraeus testified that within a day he knew the assault on our consulate in Benghazi was a premeditated terrorist attack committed by a Libyan militia with ties to al-Qaeda. As a result, Petraeus authorized the release of this information to the public in talking points to be given to the White House and to lawmakers. CBS News reports that references to al-Qaeda were later removed by Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) — an agency run by James Clapper, an Obama appointee. The FBI also made substantial edits.